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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this role as the perfect chance, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why was the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way the team went about their transfer business, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his way out, that was the implication of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was losing the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes